Am-FeT'iSarm-}  The  Letter  of  the  Law.  107 
each  had  sold  a  quantity  of  tincture  of  nux  vomica  which  upon 
examination  was  found  to  contain  less  than  two  per  cent,  of  dry 
extractive.  The  basis  of  the  prosecution  was  an  existing  New  Jersey 
statute,  which  enacted  that  any  preparation  shall  be  deemed  to  be 
adultered  if  (when  sold  under  or  by  a  name  recognized  in  the  U.  S. 
Pharmacopoeia)  it  "  differs  from  the  standard  of  strength,  quality,  or 
purity  laid  down  therein."  And  2  per  cent,  extractive,  as  stated, 
was  the  standard  of  the  U.  S.  P.  at  that  time. 
The  evidence  introduced  developed  the  fact  that  the  tincture  had 
been  prepared  from  normal  liquid  nux  vomica,  Parke,  Davis  &  Co.; 
the  plaintiff's  witness  testified  that  it  contained  0  712  per  cent,  of 
dry  extractive  ;  and  upon  this  the  prosecution  rested  its  charge  of 
adulteration  within  the  meaning  of  the  statute,  no  attempt  being 
made  to  establish  the  therapeutic  inferiority  of  the  disputed  prepara- 
tion, or  any  deficiency  in  the  needful  content  of  the  all-important 
alkaloids. 
Seldom  has  such  an  array  of  learned  talent  or  such  a  wealth  of 
distinguished  evidence  been  brought  forward  in  defence  of  any  cause 
involving  a  pharmaceutical  question,  as  was  now  adduced  by  the 
respective  defendants  in  sustaining  their  position.  Professors  Rem- 
ington, Hare,  Rusby,  Ryan,  Marshall,  Dr.  Eccles,  and  the  lamented 
Professor  Bedford,  all  went  upon  the  stand  and  declared  with  one 
voice  that  the  active  constituents  of  nux  vomica  are  its  two  alkaloids, 
strychnine  and  brucine,  alone  ;  that  the  quantity  of  dry  extractive 
forms  no  standard  of  strength,  quality,  or  purity,  and  may,  indeed 
be  completely  inert — without  medicinal  property  or  physiological 
action  ;  that  tinctures  of  nux  vomica  made,  as  was  the  one  in  ques- 
tion, from  the  normal  liquid,  are  far  more  reliable  than  the  tinctures 
on  the  market  produced  in  exact  accordance  with  the  U.  S.  P. 
formula,  since  the  former  are  of  uniform  alkaloidal  strength,  and  the 
latter  subject  to  extreme  variations  of  medicinal  potency ;  that 
the  U.  S.  P.  standard  could  be  easily  evaded  by  the  addition  of 
sufficient  glucose  to  any  inferior  tincture ;  and  finally,  that  the 
Pharmacopoeia  of  1880  really  offered  no  means  of  determining  the 
"  strength,  quality,  or  purity  "  of  the  tincture  to  which  the  name 
standard  could  with  any  propriety  be  applied,  hence  was  virtually 
devoid  of  such  standard. 
All  for  naught.  Here  the  gods  themselves  would  have  contended 
in  vain.    Conceding  the  entire  probity  of  the  defendants,  and  the 
